“The war to save the Sidhe.” Lugh’s gaze purposefully lowered to her lips with a hunger that was not wholly feigned. “A connoisseur of your refined tastes surely can appreciate such a quest.”
“I can indeed.” She tilted back her head, offering her mouth to him. “We have a deal.”
Which they sealed with a kiss both deep and salacious.
Chapter Two
Lugh knew when the sun rose even more so than the vampire with whom he shared the bed. For the first hour of their copulation Lugh kept her wrists bound fast to the headboard. Once Selena proved herself capable of self discipline, he freed her for the balance of the terms to which they’d agreed. Once they’d spent themselves, and slaked the knife edge of her thirst, the remainder of the night of his obligation passed in peaceable companionship and lazy caresses.
In truth, the expenditure of sexual energy did him much good. Selena was a skilled and considerate lover, matching his own investment into the evening’s performance. The need for such a joining of bodies was as essential as the Touch and any other nourishment. Though, not since before the Collapse had he felt the Touch of another Sidhe. Part of him once feared that no Sidhe yet survived, save for himself. Although he’d found the artifact that the magicraft guided him here to reclaim, a dwarven battle axe which now awaited him to retrieve it from the dressing table, the hope of finding other Sidhe occupied his mind as he reposed in naked embrace with the vampire.
Not slighting her even a second of his promise, Lugh lingered in her bed until dawn fully broke. Then he gave her one last hug and an unhurried press of lips before disentangling himself from her and the bed sheets. As he donned his clothing, Selena rolled over to watch him. Amusement gave her voice a musical quality. “I don’t suppose there is anything else in my home you desire enough to trade for a second night?”
One corner of his mouth quirked up. “You’ve yet to fulfill the terms of this contract. Once I have satisfaction, then might we discuss another exchange of pleasantries.”
Rolling over, she reached for a small device the size of her palm on the bedside table. Selena’s quick fingers performed some pattern of movement over the shiny surface of the device, causing it to light up and utter soft chimes. After a moment she placed it aside and offered him an easy smile. “She’ll be along shortly.”
“She?” Lugh fastened his slacks. He left unsecured the tails of the shirt Selena denuded of buttons, allowing it to hang open freely.
“Her name is London. She knows where the Unseelie youths have holed up. You’ll have to negotiate with her to lead you to them.” Selena rose to her elbows on the bed, uncovered save the drape of the sheet over her feet. “What did you mean when you spoke of a war to save the Sidhe?”
“Seeking to alter the topic of discussion?” Lugh ignored the attempt to distract him with her nudity, focusing on her pale blue eyes. “Or the terms to which we agreed?”
“London won’t trust me with the location of the Unseelie, or believe me, they would no longer be there.” The glint of the predator she was shone through the friendly facade. “Now what did you mean about saving the Sidhe?”
Hefting the battle axe in one hand, testing its weight, Lugh examined the artifact more closely than he had the evening before. Leather twined about the handle in a woven pattern that created an ornate twist of knotwork designs. Though the blade had dulled, a recent sharpening left crude tool marks on the edge that would have infuriated a dwarf. It mattered not. The weapon was forged in the first realm of fey, and within its magic it bore but one more piece to the puzzle that might recreate the Mounds. “Have you heard of the fate of the Mounds?” Lugh asked, not raising his gaze to meet hers. She need not see the burden of grief sequestered within his heart.
“I know of the Collapse,” she admitted. “It is common knowledge to those who are aware of the fey.”
“I haven’t the time to mince words or weave stories, Selena.” He placed the axe aside. His fingers stroked over the handle, imagining the blacksmith who cast the metal ingots into the fire to create something that might last over ten thousand years. “What fey survive the cataclysm are yet doomed to perish. But one chance remains. One slim breath of a hope. If I fail in my quest, all the fey will Fade forever from existence.”
“That would be a shame.” Selena rose from the bed, gathered a shimmering red silk bathrobe from the bureau, and belted it around her waist. She flipped her blond hair free of the fabric, and though mildly disheveled, her locks still gleamed as brightly as the silk. With a feline sway she crossed to him on pale, bare feet across the plush carpet. Boldly, she encircled his neck with her lithe arms, leaning against him with familiarity. “I fancy your sexy Sidhe body in my bed.”
“Then I might rely upon your aid in this matter?” His arms wrapped easily around her thin waist. Each caress and murmured compliment throughout the night had served as more than merely the payment of his side of the trade. Carefully, he’d cultivated this very moment. Guiding her with a lover’s hand to the conclusions he desired. Enlisting her interest and concern. Forging an alliance based on emotional investment. Lugh’s hands glided up her back until he cupped Selena’s head, tilting it back so that he might gaze with deliberate longing upon her upturned mouth. “So that I might not perish and never again share such a glorious night in your bed, worshiping your body?”
Though he kissed her soundly, Lugh avoided her fangs, careful not to prick himself. Selena did not press the point, as it were, satisfying herself with the passion of the kiss without feeding her vampire lusts. And when the kiss subsided and their mouths parted, she paused not longer than the span of a sigh before agreeing. “To win you as a lover, in as much as any fey can be relied upon as such, I will help you.” Her bright blue eyes searched his, and he wondered how much she played him, and if it matched his own guile. How much she lured him, using his own penchant toward lasciviousness to allow him to weave the web of his own entrapment. It was a Seelie game, and she played it well, cloaking her true predatory desires behind this performance. In the end, assuming his quest succeeded and he did not Fade from this life, time alone would tell if today they sowed the seeds of a friendship or of animosity. For truly, if she sought more from him than the occasional tumble in the sheets and a friendship born of mutual advantage, she would surely come to despise him.
But she’d voiced her agreement to aid him further, so Lugh pressed onward. “In my experience, vampires have a tendency to collect all manner of relics, just as you had this axe.” From the pocket of his slacks, he produced the glass vial of enchanted gold dust. “This simple magicraft can be used to locate the items I require to save the fey.” He demonstrated its use, allowing her to see how the dust spiraled and pointed toward the axe. “I’ve no doubts that you have vast connections among your kind, and that finding and procuring these relics for me would constitute only a light thing.”
Selena examined the vial that he’d pressed into her palm, and then glanced up at him with playfully narrowed eyes. “I don’t normally do the bidding of others. They do my bidding. You’re lucky that I like you, even with your evil sun magic.”
“I am a lucky man indeed.” He soothed her ruffled pride with a brief kiss, for indeed it would be fortunate if he needn’t battle and barter with all the vampires in Ireland for such artifacts as could be found among their collections. “And grateful.”
A rap upon the door detained any further play or discussion. Lugh released the vampire mistress, who languidly reclined once more on the bed as though reluctant to face the day, as likely she was, given her nocturnal nature. He cast a playfully lustful glance upon her as he accepted the role of doorman and opened it for the visitor.
The dark-haired woman bore a serving tray with both a chalice of blood and a tall glass of orange juice. Her focus hit upon his partially bared chest, and the bite marks upon it, before traveling up the length of his body, as if drinking in the mere sight of him. The expression of shock was not unattractive as she spotted his
undisguised ears with their elfish points. Lugh easily caught the tray as she dropped it, for she was so stunned as to not even have noticed its fall, collecting it before it unbalanced the glasses or sloshed their contents.
Lugh presented the tray to Selena, who accepted her glass with a smile that was at once both satisfied and amused. Taking the juice for himself, he deposited the tray on the side table. With a casual grace that was as much a part of his Seelie attributes as his diplomatic turn of phrase, he leaned back against the vanity. He neither encouraged nor discouraged the human’s bold stare, but rather waited with the appearance of patience for the woman to collect her wits as he partook of his drink. Since the extracting of nectar from fruit became a fashion, the vampires he’d known, and he’d known many of them, insisted on foisting the drink upon him, proclaiming the medicinal virtues of the plant for a swift recovery after blood loss.
The vampire purred in her seductive way, “London, my dear friend, I believe I have found you a client.” And then she returned the hungry sweep of her gaze to Lugh as she toyed with the enchantment he’d given her. “Have you a number where I can reach you if I find anything useful?”
As he knew not of what she spoke, Lugh assumed he lacked the thing about which she inquired. “I have not. If you discover anything, send an emissary to Sneem and give word to the one called Jonathan, and your message will find me.”
“If your quest is as dire as all that, then you can’t rely on such antiquated methods,” she chided him. “If all I have been told of the Mounds is true, then you’ll require an aide to help you navigate the necessary technologies and make arrangements for you.” With a queenly bearing, she addressed the woman, “Set him up with a cell phone. He’ll also need your investigative talents to find a number of items of interest.”
Before Lugh could protest, Selena rose once more from the bed and crossed to him as if she were a spirit whose feet touched not the ground, but rather glided effortlessly through the air. Her tapered fingers brushed over his lips before he could voice an objection. “Do this for me. Allow London to assist you. Pay the price she must exact. She is well worth it, I assure you.”
Her fingertips departed from his mouth, her gaze falling upon his lips in their stead. She moved closer even as his hand cradled her low back. “And as for the final item of our agreement, if you protect her from them, she will lead you to the Unseelie.”
Chapter Three
“I am far too Seelie to depart from a negotiation without disclosure, in full, of the terms to which I am agreeing.” Even as Lugh embraced Selena, as she wished him to, he wasn’t in the least beguiled by her attempts to distract him. Although the vampire occupied his arms, Lugh’s keen attention returned to the human. “Know you the whereabouts of those Sidhe called the earthborns?”
The woman blinked at him, as if she’d not expected him to speak to her regarding this matter. After a moment’s hesitation, she admitted, “I know where they are.” Those dark, untrusting eyes flicked from him to Selena and back again. “But I won’t tell you if you plan to hurt them. Or if you’ll betray them to Selena or anyone else who’d hunt them.”
“Of this, you can be assured. I am not their Champion for naught.” Lugh straightened, partially dislodging the vampire from where she lounged against him, ready to put her aside if needs be. “What is this payment you must extract, of which Selena spoke?”
The woman licked her lips and then crossed her arms protectively. Her mistrust pinned him. “I’ve been enchanted.” An Unseelie term for humans who had been Touched. The Seelie would have called such a one as she ‘captivated.’ After London confessed her condition, she paused to gauge his reaction. When he gave her none, other than his continued attention, she proceeded, “The one who first Touched me was killed. I need another Sidhe to take me on.”
“Take you on?” he repeated, his tone asking for clarification.
“To hire me on a permanent basis in exchange for the Touch when I need it.” From the tension on her face and in the closed manner in which she clung to herself, the woman revealed much more than she likely realized. Knowing the Unseelie as he did, it was not difficult to deduce.
With gentle grace, Lugh disentangled himself from the vampire. She resisted him not, just watched him with rapt attention. He made no sign that he noticed, only fixed his attention upon the human. His voice softened, murmuring as if to only her, “You were ill-treated?”
The woman, very much shorter than he, backed away a half step at his question as if he threatened her, though he made no such move. Everything about her revealed the truth, including her reluctance to admit abuse. Even now, fear shone in her eyes, as though she expected that he might strike her.
Lugh raised a hand slowly, showing her that it bore no weapon nor was it intended for violence. He held it in a softly curved shape, not flattened to slap nor clenched to strike. As he would have approached a new steed, he eased his hand closer to her face, testing to see if she might flinch or accept. He could tell that even holding herself still for him challenged her. He saw it in her tremble and heard it in the quickening of her breath. With as delicate a caress as he could achieve, Lugh cupped her cheek. Mingled in the barest of Touch that he granted her, Lugh showed her kindness: the majesty of the Sidhe, the beauty of the fey, the wonderment of magic, the love one has for the simpler beings that desire nothing more than to be loved and treated with kind acceptance, for which they granted a fierce loyalty.
When she leaned her cheek into his palm, he knew she’d surrendered her resistance. Guided by his lightest encouragement, her face upturned toward him. Lugh placed a chaste kiss upon her lips. Her mouth softened to his, and he could have taken liberties with her if he desired them, and she would not have resisted. Rather, he lingered in that feathered kiss as he Touched her, feeling at once both her need and her lack of it. The woman had been Touched, this much was true. The Touch burned a void into humans, making them an empty vessel inside that forever longed for fulfillment. But this woman had been filled with Sidhe magic and very recently. Lugh need not give her but the slimmest Touch to top her vessel to the brim once more. He loathed to waste even the scant bit of magic he’d granted her, but for the location of other Sidhe, he’d have paid a greater price.
Lugh withdrew from the kiss only far enough to gaze into her eyes. The heat of her breath, coming in hard gasps, brushed sweetly over his face. His palm still cradled her face, though he no longer Touched her with his magic. “Now, you shall take me to the Sidhe.” A simple instruction to test her compliance.
With a tiny nod of her head, she whispered, “Yes.”
His smile was so soft as to only touch the corners of his mouth. Lugh murmured to her, “If you are loyal, if you are truthful with me in all things, if you are willing to bear my secrets to your grave, then shall I consider becoming your patron. This is no light thing, not for you and not for me. You must prove yourself before I grant such a commitment.” The pad of his thumb brushed tenderly over her cheek, petting her, soothing her, luring her to entrust him.
Lugh glanced back over his shoulder at Selena, for accepting the human as his servant served more than one purpose. “I shall accept your charge as my companion, as long as she remains faithful to me,” he stipulated, “and provide her with what protection I am able.” Although he remained somewhat dubious as to what benefits this human could offer him beyond the location of the Unseelie. Like as not, the vampire meant the woman to be nothing but a proxy to spy on him and report his movements back to her mistress, but then knowing that meant he could use her to his advantage when next he must negotiate with the vampire. If he guided and indoctrinated her properly, London’s loyalty would swiftly turn to him, heart and soul. And if nothing else, he could always task her with the menial errands suitable to what skills she possessed. Without Willem, or another lesser fey, to fetch and carry for him, there was clothing that needed tending to and food to be procured and other such domestic concerns.
“Good.” Selena gav
e him a truly brilliant smile that seemed very genuine. She finger combed his hair, grooming him so that his ears were hidden, yet another uniquely feminine sign that she’d truly taken to him and the concern for his wellbeing. “Then if I learn anything that might be worth your blood in trade, I shall contact you through London.”
“I have no doubt that you will.” He offered a rueful smile and then collected the axe once more from the vanity. When the human didn’t precede Lugh from the room, he held open the door with a courtly gesture and a gracious bow, which altogether seemed to startle her. “Shall we away, my lady?” The woman recovered quickly and departed with a final backward glance to the vampire, who grinned at her in a fashion that was quite playful and waggled her fingers in a jesting wave goodbye.
Chapter Four
As ever, the autos the humans used for conveyance were entirely inadequate to accommodate the generous length of Lugh’s legs. The journey from Dublin to Kilkenny lasted a shade longer than an hour, and every moment of it was a cramped and oil-scented annoyance. Even with the window lowered and the seat adjusted back to the farthest setting, Lugh contemplated kicking open the door and flinging himself from the horrid contraption. If not for the urgency of his quest, he’d have shunned the experience and acquired a hearty and well-trained horse. Better yet, to succeed in his mission and regain the unfettered use of teleportation. One did not appreciate the ease of such a magic until denied it.
Remnants of Magic (The Sidhe Collection (Urban Fantasy)) Page 12
